SimLeague Baseball Updates

Changes within the last 3651 days...

11/17/2013

Fixed a waiver claim bug where we were not permitting the addition of a player to a team if the team also owned a prospect that was derived from the same player.

03/16/2013

Restarted the LIVE service. Based on data submitted by users, it appears the 1/11/2013 update to fix increase in OF errors did not take.

01/11/2013

Engine fix for OF fielding. Transposed number in 12/31 update caused a small drag on OF defense.

01/03/2013

Engine fix pertaining to players moving to another position as part of defensive replacement. Missed the check to make sure player leaving game as part of position move was allowed to exit for a defensive replacement (player setting). Thanks to rejthegreat for the discovery.

12/31/2012

During dire situation (i.e. trailing in final inning), manager will evaluate PH/PR setting before lifting his only catcher or shortstop. This will prevent situations where team comes back to tie or take lead, then must play player out of position at key position. Will still occur if aggressive or very aggressive.

Logic will now consider shifting a player's position in order to lift another player for a PH/PR. Will only occur if manager has aggressive or very aggressive PR/PH setting.

Improved stolen base attempt logic. Previously, a hard SBA% cutoff was in place based on a myriad of factors. The hard cap has been removed in favor of a linear cap so that players who, for instance, when 12-13 in real life will now attempt some steals. Based on testing, this results in a ~10% increase in stolen base attempts including a 6% increase in successful steals and 15% increase in runners caught stealing.

Improved defensive replacement, double-switch and injured fielder replacement logic. Manager will now try to put best defense on field instead of performing a 1-for-1 swap at each position. for example, you may now see a defensive replacement enter at CF and the previous CF shift over to LF.

Boxscore has been modified to show a player's original and final position to help better track in-game position changes.

Improved PH/PR logic. Previously, manager would get into bad situation when using a 2nd or higher PH/PR in same inning. He'd earmark a player to enter at 2B but later earmark same player to enter at SS, for instance, and then team would be stuck with a player out of position. Manager is much smarter now and won't PH/PR unless all positions are covered with available players in hierarchy.

Improved relief pitcher selection for tie games in 7th or later when closer should not enter, manager now looks at specialists before setup pitchers. Previously, specialists were being looked at after setup pitchers in this situation.

Improved PH logic when team with a small lead late in the game is in a non-crucial situation. Manager will no longer PH for a strong defensive player when backup is defensively inferior.

Improved PH logic regarding pinch-hitting for relief pitchers. If a non-crucial situation, manager will evaluate current pitcher's pitch count vs target pitch count along with available relievers. If it's best to keep RP in game so he can pitch another inning or two, he will hit for himself. This will prevent situations where stud reliever only throws a handful of pitches, is PH for, and then a LR or mopup is forced to enter next inning half.

Improved logic for double-switches, pinch-hitting and pinch-running. Previously, manager didn't really consider other players in lineup when making decisions. Now, there's a chance a player will move to another position (if in hierarchy) to accommodate a PH or PR entering the game.

Added double-switch logic during inning. If new relief pitcher enters, evaluate if double-switch should occur based on game situation and appropriate hierarchy. This won't happen often as rest or defensive replacements would have typically already occurred.

Improved pinch-hitting logic for late/close situations. Previously, some hard cutoffs (based on managerial setting) were preventing many candidates from being lifted during dire situations when a much better hitter was available on bench.

12/07/2012

Fixed a player search bug where pressing "Enter" in Chrome would trigger a Save Search instead of the expected Search functionality. Thanks to frozen_rope for helping us track this one down.

11/08/2011

Added option to Theme League Wizard that allows author to use a custom salary cap for the league.

04/08/2011

Corrected a minor bug involving a theme league setting and player clones. For themes using Team Rules for individual players, if the No Clones setting was chosen a team could still add a clone via waivers or trade. This loophole has been closed.

04/01/2011

Put out a minor engine patch that adjusts success rate for suicide and safety squeezes in live play for when the infield is in and/or when runners are being held on. The success rate has been substantially lowered.

12/20/2010

Improved logic for yanking starting pitcher at the plate for a PH after allowing 1 or 2 runs in the previous inning half but 3 or fewer for the entire game. We now give a little more rope before yanking for performance reasons.

Improved logic for yanking pitcher after allowing run while in field with 2 out and nobody on base (i.e. run scoring sac fly or home run). If very patience or patient setting, manager will now be a little more lenient.

Improved logic for going with LongB/Setup B before LongA/Setup A when 7th inning and trailing by 5 or more runs.

Added link to show full boxscore at bottom of play-by-play when reading play-by-play only (My Recent Games page).

10/06/2010

The 2010 Teams and Players are now available!

We have updated ballpark factors for all parks that have been introduced since Coors Field. We have added Target Field. We have also updated the number grade ratings for all parks to bring them back into good distribution. The underlying values have not changed.

08/31/2010

LIVE: fixed a crash bug where user would PR, shift position of PR to other position, and other position player to PR original position all in same move.

Engine: pitcher and catcher now receive SBA for both runners of double steal

Engine: runners now advance only one base when outfielder drops a routine fly ball with < 2 out

Engine: improved logic for pinch-running for a DH (had not been accounting for the fact anyone on bench could DH in future innings)

Engine: Eased the speed comparison when looking to go with PR in 9th or later

Engine: improved logic for perfect game detection when lone runner(s) reaches on error

Engine: Improved relief pitcher logic when two or more pitchers eligible to enter. Now looks at fatigue difference of > 20 for selection purposes before looking at stats. For example, a pitcher with fatigue of 90 will now be chosen over a pitcher at 60 even if pitcher at 60 has better stats.

Engine: Improvement to logic for picking which Pinch-Hit hierarchy chart. will now go with contact when 1+ outs, runner(s) in scoring position, can tie or take lead with runners.

02/08/2010

Bug fix: We introduced a bug on 1/15/2010 where open leagues were not re-aligning properly. This has been fixed today.

01/07/2010

To help with roster flexibility, we have reduced the minimum PA_162 and IP_162 team totals to 4,800 and 1,200 for non-theme leagues.

12/31/2009

Fixed a bug where a perfect game was being credited even if a batter reached via error.

Improved IBB logic so manager will determine if on-deck hitter is a pitcher and whether he'll be PH.

Improved PH logic for pos player so manager will scan def rep hierarchy after rest hierarchy when checking to make sure another player on bench can play position being PH.

12/18/2009

Improved the logic for when a player plays with one team, is traded away, and then traded back. The player's initial fatigue will no longer be 100%, but will be what it should be based on previous stats earned or prorated stats, whichever is higher.

11/24/2009

More bug fixes were released this week:

Leaders page, Career Totals: In multi-season leagues, if the “Career Totals” option is selected instead of a season, the totals given were including playoff stats. Now only regular season stats are included in the totals.

Manager's Center: Trying to save an invalid lineup will no longer reset your settings back to the previous values, it will continue to let you make modifications until you save a valid lineup.

League Records: In some cases, a user's Wild Card count wasn't calculating correctly. This has been fixed.

Theme Wizard, Step 8: If AAA Position Player Count is 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 and neither manual option is selected for AAA Selection, an error message is given and the wizard remains on step 8 without saving the data.

11/20/2009

Fixed two crash bugs in LIVE play.

11/16/2009

When a draft league is over and an owner has not made his ballpark and team name selection, a chat message is added letting the owners know who the straggling owner(s) is. The owner needing to choose his ballpark is also sent a site mail.

Corrections to log5 values in player search where lower is better (think OAV#, etc.)

Able to view and filter relative range factor, normalized fielding percentage and catcher caught stealing percentage in the player search

Normalized fielding

Progressive League Play: new page for career team and owner records

Progressive League Play: new career totals and career leaders to Team Stats and League Leaders

Progressive League Play: first year players are now eligible for the ROY

Player name and season broken apart into two columns on several pages to help with CSV exporting

New theme commish page (with CSV) including actual stats of all players in league by team to help with policing and verifying teams

Improvements to the +/- distribution

Addition of pitcher HR/9# to player search

Lineup page now maintains attempted settings rather than reset to active after a failed save

10/01/2009

When a position player goes down with an injury, the manager will now use a resting player in the hierarchy at the position before being forced to use a player out of position.

When 9th or later, 2 out, bases empty and trailing by more than 1 run, use the contact PH hierarchy instead of the power one.

During late, lopsided games, the manager will no longer blindly pinch-hit for a relief pitcher when it makes more sense to let him hit for himself and rack up another inning or two.

Improved the intentional walk logic so the manager looks at on-base percentage instead of OPS when it's the 9th or later and runners in scoring position.

Improved pinch hitting logic. If the pitcher is due up in the inning and there is only one position player available on the bench, don't use him to pinch-hit for a position player. Keep him on the bench so he can pinch-hit for the pitcher.

The manager will no longer bring in a defensive replacement or player for rest at catcher when it's in the 7th or later and the starting pitcher has a no-hitter going.

09/21/2009

Added some CSV functionality to the main stat pages within SimLeague Baseball league play.

08/25/2009

Corrected a bug in which an injury to a pitcher would not occur if the rest of the pitchers were all designated to rest. Now, an injury can occur in this situation forcing a rested pitcher to pitch.

08/19/2009

07/31/2009

Corrected a bug involving the opposing team's starting pitchers and opposing catcher in the Team Office's Scouting preview area. This only involved rotations that went beyond the final spot in the starting rotation during the series.

07/28/2009

Engine -- minor adjustment so that long relievers receive preference over specialists under some late game situations when a specialist is not needed.

LIVE -- adjusted logic for sac bunt attempts so that success rates will be higher when infield or corners are not playing in.

07/27/2009

For theme leagues that use the "Randomly Align League" option, the Re-align league option in the League Office is no longer available as it was leading to confusion. These leagues will now have their divisions randomly aligned once upon schedule generation and that is it.

07/23/2009

Fixed a bug where private theme leagues were inadvertently being made public if not filled after 7 days. Private theme leagues will no longer become public unless the creator makes the change.

Expanded the Stat Snapshot to include player usage.

07/13/2009

Corrected a bug where a pitcher that pinch-hit for the pitcher could earn credit for a victory even if he never stepped on the mound. This pertains mostly to LIVE play.

Added a new 20 team, 4 playoff schedule: WIS Alternate F.

Revamped the Alt-E WIS Schedule so there are no more 17-game home or away trips. In addition, the final series of the season is now against a division foe.

Added a theme commish option to the League Office page that allows the commish to delay the playoff schedule or tiebreaker games in the event they have a custom rule that requires a different playoff configuration.

Added a new "trade deadline" that occurs 24 hours before the transaction deadline. This is so owners have a full 24 hours to handle any roster moves stemming from last minute completed trades.

Expanded the Team/Player theme league wizard statistical criteria so owners can now restrict team total and individual player stats by normalization categories and some new pitching plus stats.

Added the ability for owners to hide trades once they've viewed them. They will continue to fade away after two weeks, but this if for those who simply want them gone faster.

Teams can no longer claim the same the same player season that they already have or had on their team at any point that season. This closes a hole where a team would draft a player, use all his stats, then waive/release and claim again for one start, then repeat.

Added a theme league option so owners can choose to have $X added to each team in the league after the first team in the league completes it's Zth game during the season. This promotes trading and waiver wire usage.

Disabled the Player Rest and Defensive Replacement settings for pitchers on the Advanced Hitting Options page as they made no sense in that context.

Added a home or away indicator on the player game log page within the player profile. Games on the road will have the opposing team listed as "@ Opposing Team".

Split the "Clear Roster" link into two links: "Clear Hitters" and "Clear Pitchers" to provide greater flexibility in the Draft Center. Please note, this is not designed to clear manually drafted prospects in theme leagues.

Added the "Champions" page. The page is available from the secondary navigation menu throughout the game and provides a glimpse of who has won what throughout the history of SLB.

06/24/2009

Improved logic for replacements after multiple PR/PH in same inning half. Better use of spectrum when nobody is listed to play positions needed.

Improved logic to check bench depth before blindly using pinch-runners. For instance, don't pinch-run with your last available position player if your pitcher is due up next.

Improved logic for deciding whether to yank a relief specialist at the plate for a PH if next inning half still fits the specialist's strength.

Improved logic to allow mopup or long reliever to remain in game longer if bases become empty after surrendering a run and 2 out.

If 2 out in 9th or later with lead, no more holding runners on. This tightens up the defense to prevent base hits while giving up any potential steal.

Reduced the likelihood of runners getting picked off late in game with big lead or trailing big.

Corrected bug where throwing error after good play was not being flagged as a good/bad play in play-by-play.

If Hit & Run is on and infield at double play depth, fielder will now consider going home with throw if runner advancing from third.

06/05/2009

Added an icon for the GM Office to indicate manually drafted prospects. Also improved the waiver wire and trade code so that a clone of a manually drafted prospect cannot be acquired.

Corrected some player search / draft center issues with some pre 1900 franchises not affiliated with today's chain of MLB franchises.

05/13/2009

Improved the MVP and Cy Young voting calculations to include ballpark factor.

05/08/2009

Added a process to automatically remove unfilled theme leagues with fewer than 4 teams and that have been setting for over 30 days without anyone new joining within the last 30 days.

Teams will be sent back to the Draft Center. Users will be notified via email when this occurs.

The goal of this is to keep the Available Theme Leagues page current and make it easier for owners to find viable theme leagues.

03/13/2009

Corrected a typo in the 3B fielding logic which was the cause for the below average 3B FPct across the board.

Reduced likelihood of pickoffs in 9th inning or later of close games when runners are in scoring position.

01/09/2009

Improved the underlying data for 2B and 3B allowed by pitchers. Previously, we used a universal equation for all pitchers in the database since this info is not tracked historically. Now, the equation has a seasonal modifier since we know how many doubles & triples were hit during each season (just not against whom). This should result in an increase in triples at the expense of doubles & singles.

12/04/2008

Adjusted non-normalized per 100 numbers in the player search so that they display 2 decimal places.

11/03/2008

Corrected a bug in the engine in which pitchers with fewer than 50 AB were not having their home run ratio adjusted downward properly. All other offensive stats were being downgraded correctly, but the HR ratio had an error in the formula.

10/27/2008

Corrected a bug involving DHs playing a position in the field (other than 1B). The range factor was inflated leading to more + plays than should have ever occurred.

10/20/2008

Corrected a bug that was eliminating the link between a team and a newly created theme. If an owner creates a theme, enters a league and then returns to the draft center to correct a mistake, the theme is still tied to the team so it's easier to correct the mistake and re-enter the team.

Improved the salary formula to decrease salary of pitchers who had at least 1 AB at the plate but fewer than 50. Also improved the formula to better account for players that can play multiple positions and secondary positions better than their primary position.

Updated all ballparks that were created in 1990 or later. Added the Nationals Park.

Released the 2008 player seasons, added some miscellaneous historical player seasons that were missing, corrected some others.

Improved the relative range factor in the game. This resulted in a new set of records for all players including new salaries.

09/26/2008

Added the Alternate WIS Format D & E schedule formats for theme league play. The schedules are 12 and 16 team leagues geared towards LIVE play that include interleague play for more matchup variety during the season.

06/27/2008

LIVE -- improved the logic for safety and suicide squeezes. The success rate has been lowered, since the ball is usually in front of the infielders (assuming corners or infield in).

LIVE Change -- the success rate of attempting to hit and run with a sole runner on third, runners on 2nd and 3rd or with the bases loaded has been dramatically lowered. Since this is such a bad baseball decision (runners are already in scoring position), we feel the penalty should be severe. Usually this will result in the lead runner being nailed at the plate. Applying the hit and run with runners on 1st and 3rd will be ok, because it implies the hit and run is only on with the runner on 1st.

Improved the logic for catcher errors. Historically, we've had far too few errors by catchers. This should increase moving forward.

Improved the logic for the defense conceding runs when leading, infield not playing in, and groundballs hit to the SS or 3B late in the game. This will cut down on the # of ill concieved attempts at the plate.

Improved the logic for runners taking the extra base when 2 out. With runners off on contact, their rate of advancement needed to be higher.

Added logic for runners being able to be doubled off on bad bunt attempts (popups & lineouts).

Improved decision logic for outfielders not throwing home and allowing the trailing runners to advance when late in the game and with a lead.

Improved the logic for determining errors. There had been a noticeable decrease in errors over the last 6 months. We pinpointed and corrected this flaw. It had to do with the distribution of fielding errors and throwing errors.

Added the potential for errors on sac bunts and bunting for base hits.

Improved the sac bunt logic to include the baserunner's speed as a factor in the success rate.

Added errors where 1B drop throws from other infielders

05/22/2008

Introduced the Performance History page available from the League Player Profile page and the Draft Center Player Profile page.

05/19/2008

Added a setting which delays scheduling until a commissioner has approved the league.

04/30/2008

04/28/2008

We've added an option in the Theme League Wizard that allows you to specify the number of vetoes required to negate a trade.

We've added a new player search option (advanced mode) that will allow you to search players from a season list rather than a season range. i.e., 1949;1963;1978.

We've added new functionality in the Draft Center to allow you to view your roster X years into the past or future to help with roster assembly (multi-season leagues only).

We've added automatic private forum generation for multi-season leagues. Only owners in the league will be granted access, and the forum will remain the same from season to season.

Team profile addition so that you can view your team's actual player statistics moving forward or in reverse 1 season at a time (multi-season leagues only). So if you have a team of players from 1948, you'll be able to click a link to show the available players on this roster and their stats for 1949 (and continue to move 1 season at a time).

We've added a whitelist option to the Theme League Wizard. Only players from this list will be eligible in the league.

Along with the whitelist is an option to show whether a player has been drafted and, if desired, who drafted him.

We've added an option in the Theme League Wizard that allows league members to draft their own AAA. Owners will be able to draft their own AAA or allow the AI to create prospects. For instance, if a theme league is setup to have 6 position players in AAA and 2 pitchers in AAA, you'll be able to draft 2 position players and 1 pitcher and the AI will create the rest for you. In addition, you can specify whether the AAA players should follow the regular theme league rules or not.

We've added a note section within Draft Center that will carry over to the Team Center. This should serve as a good location to maintain info regarding DL and IR players. It will automatically pull your previous season's team note as a starting point.

We've added a new option in the Draft Center to allow you to load a previous team with a year offset. So, if you have a team of players from 1948/1990, you can specify an offset of 2, for instance, and it will load eligible players from the team in seasons 1950/1992.

As a result of chaining leagues, we can show historical results for multi-season leagues (dating back to April, 2007). Player profiles, team profiles, league standings, playoff results and league leaders allow owners to go back in time for previous league results and stats.

We've added a new trade history page that provides any completed trades including notes regarding future draft picks. This page will also allow you to view previous season's trades for multi-season leagues.

New league formats to allow for more realistic replays of historical seasons as well as smaller leagues for more unique themes.
Another step has been added to the Theme League Wizard that allows you to specify the league size and configuration.
You can choose from 1 of 10 historic league formats or 1 of 4 custom WIS formats (including the current standard).
Here are the historic formats:
* 2001-present with 30 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (5-5-6-5-4-5), 8 playoff teams, interleague play and an unbalanced schedule
* 1998-2000 with 30 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (5-5-6-5-4-5), 8 playoff teams, interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1997 with 28 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (5-4-5-5-4-5), 8 playoff teams, interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1994-1996 with 28 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (5-5-6-5-4-5), 8 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1993 with 28 teams, 2 leagues, 2 divisions (7-7-7-7), 4 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1977-1992 with 26 teams, 2 leagues, 2 divisions (6-6-7-7), 4 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1969-1976 with 24 teams, 2 leagues, 2 divisions (6-6-6-6), 4 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1962-1968 with 20 teams, 2 leagues, 1 divisions (10-10), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1961 with 18 teams, 2 leagues, 1 divisions (8-10), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1901-1960 with 16 teams, 2 leagues, 1 divisions (8-8), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
Here are the custom formats:
* WIS 1 with 24 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (4-4-4-4-4-4), 8 playoff teams, interleague play and an unbalanced schedule
* WIS 2 with 24 teams, 2 leagues, 1 divisions (12-12), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* WIS 3 with 16 teams, 2 leagues, 2 divisions (4-4-4-4), 4 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* WIS 4 with 12 teams, 2 leagues, 1 division (6-6), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
The prizes will be adjusted based on the ratio of # of teams in the league compared to the standard 24 team league. This includes the credit for filling a theme league. For instance, if you are the theme commish and fill a 12-team theme league, you'll receive 50% of the standard $12.95. Alternatively, if you win the World Series in a 30-team league, you'll receive 25% more than a standard league.
TOC eligibility for leagues smaller than 16 teams will also be different. Only the World Series winner will be entered into the TOC.

We've added the ability to tie leagues together from one "season" to the next. Within the Theme League Wizard, the league commish can specify the previous league number and a password to validate membership.

03/17/2008

Some additional pinch-hitting logic has been added so that teams ahead by a significant margin don't pinch-hit for their position players.

We've applied an additional penalty for left-handed fielders playing 2B, 3B or SS. Most of the penalty involves range, but there is also a minor factor for fielding percentage. This is in addition to the standard out of position penalty and the defensive spectrum shift penalty.

The automatic game of rest issued in between rounds of the Tournament of Champions has been removed. This will NOT impact TOCs that have started play as of 3/17/2008. Teams that eliminate their opponent in fewer games than their next round's opponent will continue to get games of rest. For example, if Team A sweeps its opponent in 3 games but its next round opponent takes all 5 games to advance, then Team A still receives 2 games of rest.

We've made a modification to how the defensive hierarchy works. For most of you, you won't even notice this.
When the manager looks for defensive replacements, he will scan the hierarchy for the desired position. Starting at the top of the hierarchy, as soon as he finds an available player, that player will enter as the def rep. If he continues down the chart and encounters the current player in the game, he will realize no def rep is needed.
For example, let's say Derek Jeter is the current shortstop in the game. In the team's defensive hierarchy, Adam Everett is listed #1 at SS, then Angel Berroa at #2, then Derek Jeter at #3 and then Alex Gonzalez at #4. It's the 8th inning and time for a def replacement. The manager scans the chart and sees that Everett has already been used as a PH. He then notices that Berroa is available. He'll use Berroa as the def rep at SS even though Berroa is an inferior defensive SS compared to Jeter.
Taking that example a different way, let's say that Everett and Berroa had both been used. The manger then moves down the hierarchy and notices that the #3 def rep is Jeter who is the current player. He then determines no def rep is necessary even though the #4 player is superior to Jeter defensively.
Put another way, the manger now follows the def rep hierarchy exactly how it's configured.

The early season dampening period for position players has been extended from 10 games to 15 games. This will help with the early season extra inning games and/or early season massive blowouts. We've also slanted the model a bit to provide even more leeway the first few games of the season. This impacts all leagues immediately, so leagues that happen to be in their first 15 games on Monday will see 1 game in which their fatigue shifts in a nonstandard manner (going up a little more than it should).

02/21/2008

Made a minor adjustment to the logic for pulling a pitcher mid inning, specifically situations in the 9th or later when a long reliever gives up the lead but still has many more pitches to give and there are only long relievers or mopup pitchers available. For instance, a long reliever has pitched 2 solid innings but then gives up a solo shot in the 11th and is immediately pulled for another long reliever. Pitchers will now have a little more leeway in this type of situation.

Made a minor adjustment to the pinch-hitting logic so that position players can be lifted prior to the ninth for a pinch-hitter that does not play the same position. The inning in which this can happen is tied to the managerial PH setting.

Corrected a flaw in the LIVE rating system where users were being rewarded with rating improvements in situations where they should not. More specifically, users who started up a game and left without having played at least 75% of the game were still receiving a rating boost when they should not have been.

01/28/2008

Fixed the Verify Team functionality in the Draft Center to help with those owners building teams for theme leagues. You can now click the button at any time to see how your roster jives with the rules for the theme league.

Expanded the Season Type filter in the Player Search to now include every possible combination.

Added an automatic league spreadsheet generator. Once the World Series concludes, a zipped file of comma separated files (easily importable into Excel) is automatically built. It is then available for download via the League Office.

Adjusted the manner in which we assign pitcher stamina ratings. Previously, relievers and starting pitcher prospects had their stamina set per role. We've improved it so that the rating is now all inclusive, meaning you should expect relief pitchers to have low stamina ratings (D or E or F) and starting pitchers to have higher stamina ratings (A, B, C). We believe this system is a much better fit since you no longer need to know the pitcher's original role to figure out how durable a pitcher is.

Added a new rating for pitching prospects called Effectiveness. This rating indicates the pitcher's ability to get batters out rather than focus solely on control or velocity.

Improved the distribution of prospects. When we put out our update to include the 2007 players and the revamped player salaries, we neglected to adjust the quality of the prospects assigned to teams. This update addresses this.

01/08/2008

Added a new records category for Champion Leagues. The records began tracking 1/7/2008. Statistics from Champion Leagues are still eligible for Open League records, but only Champion League statistics are eligible for Champion League records.

12/21/2007

Adjusted the manner in which the stamina hover over text is displayed in the Manager's Office:
Pitcher & position player stamina hover over details are now based on the underlying actual season totals without the 10% cushion. This allows team owners to anticipate fatigue before it sets in. For leagues beginning on 12/21/2007 or later, this occurs when a player exceeds the actual season total plus the 10%. Remember, pitcher fatigue also incorporates game usage.
The projected PA total is now displayed, too. We also indicate when early season dampening effects are in place. These indicators are only displayed when viewing league statistics and when the player is fatigued and/or is actually on pace to exceed his actual season totals.

12/13/2007

Improved the logic for deciding to yank a pitcher by increasing the importance when there are bases loaded or runners on 2nd/3rd. Previously, we weighted a runner on 3rd the same as if the bases were loaded. This will result in pitchers being lifted more often when running into trouble but before allowing a run late in the game.

When evaluating whether a pitcher should be lifted for a PH, we've broken down the minimum lead for a PH into early in the game and late in the game. The result is more pitchers hitting for themselves when they have a lead late in the game.

Adjusted the logic for pinch-hitting for a pitcher in the 5th inning. Pitchers with close leads are now more likely to hit for themselves rather than be lifted for a PH.

Expanded the logic for yanking a pitcher mid-inning when it's late in the game, team has the lead and multiple runners reach base. Previously, a pitcher wouldn't be considered for a yank until he allowed a run or reached his pitch count or if a specialist was available. Now, for example, a Setup A reliever could be considered to be yanked if other Setup A pitchers are available and he's given up a couple baserunners in the 8th with a 1-run lead.

Improved the logic for determining whether a player is out/safe when trying to take a base (scoring from second on a single to RF, for example). We had been using managerial settings in the outcome factor when it should not have been, resulting in more players being thrown out. This primarily impacts slower runners who don't attempt to advance very much. For example, a slow runner on 2B will still hold up on most singles to right. However, when they do attempt, their success ratio should now be higher since they had already evaluated all the in-game situational factors.

Increased the importance of defense when evaluating whether a team with the lead should pinch-hit for a position player late in a game. If the current player is significantly better than the replacement, the player may remain in the game rather than the superior pinch-hitter. Other factors are at play, but the defensive factor now carries more weight.

Improved the logic for determining who covers 2B when the corner infielders are playing in. The SS now covers in just about every situation.

Decreased the number of unsuccessful double play attempts by splitting some of them out into simple force outs at 1B. Previously, there were far too many out at 2B, runner beats the throw at 1B. Whether it does one over the other is based on the quality of the fielders, the batter's speed and the hit type and location.

Removed the possibility of double plays at 2B while infielders are playing in since it's virtually impossible.

Improved the manner in which we calculate fatigue in the Tournament of Champions. It now uses the same logic as regular leagues, but begins as if it were the 26th game of the season to avoid any early season dampening effects. The player begins the TOC having used up the full prorated amount of his stats for the first 25 games of the season. Combined with the other position player fatigue change, this results in a much better system for the TOC.

Adjusted the logic for determining in-game injuries (which never extend beyond the current game). The new logic is based on the fatigue of the player at the start of the game and, for pitchers only, the number of pitches thrown in the game versus their max available (the same value we use to calculate in-game fatigue).
This is a non-linear formula, where those near 0% will get injured quite often and those at 100% will just about never get injured.
Turning injuries on/off is now an option in the theme league wizard, but it is always on for non-theme leagues.

Added a salary cap rule for the minor leagues: teams will not be able to exceed 10% of the league salary cap in AAA. This rule may be turned on/off in the theme league wizard, but is always on for non-theme leagues.

Introduced new position player fatigue model. Each player begins the season with a set number of plate appearances available for the entire season. This is their PA 162 value plus an additional 10%. Following each game, fatigue is calculated based on how many PA they have racked up in the league thus far, how many games their team has played, and the available season total. It is now a simple linear formula where if your projected PA total is double the season allotment, you'll be at 0%. Anything in between is a linear relationship. There is also some damping effects in place for the first 10 games of the season.

Increased the in-game penalties for fatigued position players.

11/16/2007

LIVE fix: improved the logic so throws will go home in certain situations when a groundball is hit to the IF even if the IF is not playing in.

Engine fix: corrected a recent mistake where an extra 1/3 of an inning was being credited to a pitcher's stats when it was a groundball to the infield and a throw went home with the runner being safe.

Engine improvement: made a small adjustment to better handle a starter being pulled late in a game prior to allowing any runs in the inning.

11/05/2007

Engine -- Improved logic for runners advancing on balls hit to outfield where fielder would have to field, pivot and throw across body.

Engine -- Improved logic for pinch-hitting for pitcher to now take into consideration whether he should be left in to earn the win (by pitching at least 5 IP)

Engine -- Reduced likelihood of attempting steal of second when runners on 1st and 2nd

Engine -- Improved logic for deciding to attempt the hit and run

Engine -- corrected a flaw in the logic for LIVE play only regarding runners on 3rd being able to score too easily when both runners are held and the infield is playing in.

Engine -- only winning run will now score on game ending ground-rule doubles.

Engine -- Increased the opportunities for runners on 3rd trying to score on ground balls to the infield. This mostly includes groundballs to the left side of the infield when the IF is not playing in.

Engine -- expanded the opportunities for +/- plays for infielders. For instance, a 3B now has a chance to make a good play on bloop single to LF whereas before he did not.

10/31/2007

Increased the quality of players put on the waiver wire during the transfusion process.

Increased the frequency of the purging of lower quality players on the Waiver Wire.

Changed waiver wire clearing process so that players become available at random times.

10/22/2007

Corrected a bug which was allowing users to drop any of their pitchers if they were at the minimum of 12 positional players on their active ML roster.

Now, you can only drop a player off of your active roster if they are a pitcher and you have more than 6 of them or they are a positional player and you have more than 12 of them.

10/18/2007

10/11/2007

2007 Player Update -- Please see the forums for details regarding the upcoming 2007 Player update.

09/26/2007

Improved the pitcher replacement logic (performance reasons) to allow a pitcher to face a poor hitting pitcher with 2 out rather than bring in a relief pitcher to face the weak hitting pitcher.

Corrected a bug in which a position player flagged as rest was being chosen as a starting replacement for a player below his autorest value even though there were other non-resting players available in the rest hierarchy.

09/19/2007

Reverted positional player fatigue overusage description to using just the player's PA in the formula with no bonuses.

08/30/2007

No more poor plays leading to more than the winning run scoring in bottom of last inning

No more dropped foul ball with nobody out leading to future unearned runs

Improvement to Player of the Game logic

Improvement to the pitcher yank logic when there are many baserunners in an inning but no earned runs

Player sub logic improvement; if a PH/PR can play the position, they will now remain in the game rather than waste another replacement unless it's a def rep situation

Introduced User Settings

No more strike outs looking on hit and run attempts

07/31/2007

Corrected a display bug in LIVE involving pitchers entering a game at less than 100%.

07/19/2007

Corrected a bug involving the pinch-running of pinch-hitters who pinch-hit for a pitcher. Previously, the manager wouldn't pinch-run in this situation.

Adjusted the impact of holding/not holding runners during LIVE play.

Added the ability for fielders to make errors after getting to a play based on their range. This is displayed as a "+-" play in the boxscore.

Added the ability for fielders to prevent errors receiving throws at bases, such as a good scoop at 1B. These will be displayed in the boxscore with a "+" play. Range factor is the key variable in determining if an errant throw is prevented.

07/10/2007

Made an adjustment regarding the pinch-hitting of a mopup pitcher. There were some instances where a mopup pitcher was being pinch-hit for when the more obvious decision should have been to leave him in to eat up innings.

Made some adjustments to the basestealing logic to allow for more attempts by players within a certain range of stolen base attempts / opportunity ratios.

Made a couple adjustments to the logic for determining whether a pitcher should be yanked or not. This addresses the case where a starting pitcher with a 4 or 5 call bullpen setting was being yanked in the 9th for no apparent reason, as well as the case when a setup pitcher was yanked prematurely late in the game with pitches remaining after only giving up a hit.

Adjustment to the logic that allowed a pitcher to hit for himself in the bottom of the inning and then immediately replaced him in the top of the inning.

06/27/2007

Corrected a bug in the engine in which pitchers with a real life HR/AB rate of less than .01 were incorrectly being assigned a value of .01.

06/25/2007

Added the statistical snapshots page.

06/05/2007

Added some additional player replacement text in the play-by-play to eliminate confusion after replacing a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner. Previously it was saying the player was entering for rest or defensive purposes when they were really coming into replace a PH/PR.

Improved the intentional walk logic so that the conservative and very conservative managerial settings won't issue free passes early in the game.

Improved the logic for mopup pitcher usage. We had been checking the starting pitcher's pitch count at the start of an inning but not during the inning when the manager decided to bring in a mopup in a blowout. Now, it checks in both places so you won't see your starter get yanked so quickly in blowout situations if they have thrown less than 95% of their target pitch count.

Added roster change restrictions when users are logged into our LIVE server. This eliminates the intentional crash strategy some have been using where they would get to the set lineup screen of a game, make a roster move, and then put the demoted/released player in the game if losing to cause a crash.

05/31/2007

Improved the criteria for determining when a specialist should be used.

When a starting pitcher is forced to pitch in relief (setting not checked), we added some additional logic to prevent the team's expected next game starter from coming in.

Improved the logic for runners trying to take the extra base in late game, trailing situations

Added logic to potentially remove specialist pitchers at the start of an inning.

Added line out double plays

Adjusted the ground ball / fly ball distribution and the infield / outfield fly ball out distribution based on the stats posted in the forums a couple weeks ago.

05/22/2007

Corrected a bug involving setting the next game's starting pitcher involving swing pitchers. There was a certain situation in which the swing A/B starting pitcher rotation was not working properly. At the start of the season or at the beginning of a playoff series, if the #1 starter was not above his auto rest setting for his second start but a 2A/2B or 3A/3B was, it was inadvertently making the #1 starter the next game's SP instead of the healthy swing pitcher.

05/16/2007

Added a new Waiver Wire Transfusion process for Career leagues so there should be more players on the waiver wire in those leagues now.

05/15/2007

Reduced the likelihood of stealing second with a runner on 3rd (1st and 3rd situation).

Corrected a bug where a SP was being pulled prematurely during a blowout game when the team was leading. This was addressed previously, but a bug was negating the check. An SP is now required to pitch at least 95% of his target pitch count before he'll get yanked for the sole purpose of saving pitches in a blowout win.

Expanded the pinch-run logic so that teams with an aggressive or very aggressive pinch-running style will also pinch-run in the late innings if they have a 1 run lead and a lead runner on 1st.

Corrected a bug involving the usage of starting pitchers in relief. If an SP is eligible to enter in relief and all his settings jive while none of the bullpen guys can enter, the SP will now enter. Previously, there were a few instances where that still was not the case.

05/10/2007

Improved the sac bunt logic. Laying one down with 1 out and a runner on 2nd should be a thing of the past.

Improved the defensive replacement logic so that if the hierarchy is ordered in such a way that the better fielder is behind another fielder, once a def rep is made it will no longer make an additional def rep.

Corrected both SimMatchup and LIVE so that the actual player stats aren't displayed for prospects.

05/09/2007

Made an adjustment to the player draft profile so that if a player was blacklisted or was already selected by a different team in a live draft where clones weren't allowed, that they could no longer be selected.

Added a link from the player profile page to the team player statistics page where the team name was previously displayed on the player profile.

Added a team draft profile page as a link from the current player draft profile page. This page lists all players on a team for a specific year.

05/07/2007

Improved the logic for pinch-hitting for the pitcher late in the game when only mopup pitchers are available in the pen. The manager will now let the pitcher hit for himself while ahead rather than pinch-hit and bring in the mopup pitcher.

Improved the stolen base logic for LIVE play regarding steals of third and home.

Improved the use of the managerial baserunning setting when teams are behind late in the game.

05/04/2007

Corrected a fatigue bug in the playoffs. Some players were seeing their fatigue level drop by a handful of points after the first game of a playoff series. We weren't including playoff losses when assigning the rest in between rounds, so the numbers were slightly off.

05/03/2007

Reduced the stolen base attempt percentage for the 1 and 2 basestealing player settings.

Introduced results from a strikeout while the hit and run is on. Previously, the runner would return to the base. Now, you'll see a CS or an SB.

05/02/2007

Made an adjustment to how bad a pitcher can become due to in-game fatigue. Following the update, a pitcher couldn't become as bad as he could prior to the update. This has been changed to reflect the pre-update level of lousiness.

05/01/2007

Made an adjustment so that mopup pitchers remain in the game longer during blowouts.

The number of pitches per plate appearance has been re-adjusted. Prior to the recent update, the number of pitches per plate appearance were always floored (meaning 3.75 becomes 3). After the udpate, the number of pitches were being rounded (3.75 becomes 4). Now, they will once again be floored which is a better fit for the fatigue model in place. This was an inadvertent change on our end.

The underlying ratios for doubles and triples allowed by pitchers for seasons in which the actual data wasn't available have been improved to better reflect the season's league averages (since hitter doubles and triples are available). This will result in an increase in triples allowed for deadball pitchers.

04/30/2007

Tandem B starting pitchers will no longer get yanked so quickly. The manager now factors in his pitch count versus his target pitch count when deciding to pull the pitcher.

Improved logic for deciding when to replace a starting pitcher in blowout games. If the team is ahead in a blowout situation, the manager now makes sure the starting pitcher has reached at least 95% of his target pitch count before pulling him for the sole purpose of getting the mopup pitcher in the game.

04/12/2007

Improved range ratings using a hybrid of the relative range factor detailed in the Fielding Bible

Fatigue adjustment for the playoffs (i.e. no more Bob Mlacki strategy)

Change our logic for the rare 3-game tie involving 2 division leaders and a second place team where the division leader losing the 1-game playoff game is eliminated from the playoffs. Our change will mimic how MLB currently handles this situation

Begin using the Hardball Dynasty engine for SimLeague Baseball (it was designed with this in mind). What this means is we will instantly have fielding stats, split stats, extended stats, dramatically improved boxscores including much more detail, daily highlights in the League Office, new pitcher roles, pinch-hitting hierarchies, player rest and defensive replacement hierarchies, intentional walk managerial setting, position player rest, pitchers can bat anywhere in the lineup, target and max pitch count settings, and more. We will continue to have individual base stealing settings in SLB. The inner workings of the engine will stay the same (how the batter pitcher outcome is decided, etc.)

New player salaries incorporating many of the items pointed out in the suggestion thread (log5 values, bb/so re-weighting, catcher arm, etc.)

Evaluate treatment of deadball pitchers in terms of allowing home runs

Verify strikeouts are working as they should be (high K guys not striking enough batters out during a season, according to some users)

01/09/2006

01/05/2006

12/15/2005

Added new in-game pitching fatigue for all leagues starting on or after 12/17/2005. Basically, pitchers appearing in relief are now fatigued at a potentially higher rate. This rate is determined by the percentage of games started versus games pitched from the actual season. This was done in order to remove the unintended benefit actual starting pitchers were receiving over actual relief pitchers.

Added some additional eligibility rules for the Records section (season and individual game records). Unfortunately, games played LIVE are no longer eligible for individual game records. Any previous record set in a LIVE game has been stricken from the record book. Also added ability to restrict certain leagues from being able to set a record. Any prevoius record set by a league that was not legitimate has also been removed. This is an attempt to keep the records legit for the overwhelming majority of users who take the records somewhat seriously.

Added HR/9+ to the Individual Player Game Log page.

Added "Complete Seasons" as an option to the Season Type selection in the player search. This is for players that only appeared on 1 team in a season.

Added GS and GS to the player search for pitchers.

12/13/2005

Corrected a fatigue bug involving claiming pitchers off waivers that had already spent time on your club.

Corrected a theme league rules enforcement bug involving trades/waiver claims and Team Stat Total rules.

11/22/2005

Updated the Advanced Pitching Max Pitch Count recommendations.

11/21/2005

Theme league commissioners can now view the other teams stats in the league prior to the league starting for validation purposes. The team name title on the commish-only Rosters page now contains a link for team stats.

Corrected a mistake that was allowing a "0" choice for the Baserunning setting on the Advanced Hitter Options page. Any player that had a value of 0 has been changed to 1 which indicates the most conservative baserunning choice available.

Corrected a bug on the Player Log page involving pitchers who had appeared in games as a pinch-runner or pinch-hitter without throwing a pitch. This was resulting in the year-to-date totals being incorrect.

Corrected the listed fielding grades for 4 players: 2005 Marcus Giles, 2005 Macier Izturis, 2005 Jason Smith and 2005 Greg Dobbs. Since their underlying fielding values were correct (what is used in the sim), this change doesn't affect any leagues in progress.

11/07/2005

Ask-E has been resurrected and can be reached via the Team Center.

10/31/2005

Corrected the salaries for all position players that appeared on teams that did not play a 162-game schedule. This change resulted in teams that were in leagues that hadn't had a schedule generated yet being sent back to the Draft Center. Sitemails were sent to both the team owners and the theme league commissioners so that the leagues could be re-created and re-joined as smoothly as possible.

10/25/2005

Improved the recommendations for the player basestealing setting on the Advanced Hitter page.

Corrected a bug in the team re-assignment process for Screw Your Neighbor theme leagues.

Improved the re-population of the waiver wire. It will now re-populate more frequently and will have higher quality players. This change was necessary due to the recent salary change, fatigue changes, and occassional waiver-based theme leagues.